Ongoing advances in distributed multi-processor computer architectures have continued to drive improvements in the various technologies used to interconnect processors, as well as their peripheral components. As the speed of processors has increased, the underlying interconnect, intervening logic, and the overhead associated with transferring data to and from the processors have all become increasingly significant factors impacting performance. Performance improvements have been achieved through the use of faster networking technologies (e.g., Gigabit Ethernet), network switch fabrics (e.g., Infiniband, and RapidIO), TCP offload engines, and zero-copy data transfer techniques (e.g., remote direct memory access).
But many of the interconnect technologies currently in use require converting from the underlying interconnect architecture of the processors to the interconnect architecture of the network or network switch fabric. This may require additional and sometimes proprietary intervening hardware (e.g., host channel adapters). These interconnect technologies also may add processing layers to the communication protocol stack (e.g., Advanced Switching), adding to the overhead of the data transactions.